When Ms. Nelson comes down those steps,
we want to give her the biggest Logansport
welcome in the history of this school
It is with great pleasure that I announce
Jitka Nelson is Indiana's 2017 Teacher of the Year!
Jitka is an english and english learner
teacher at Logansport High School.
She teaches English classes to
english learners and developmental
reading. She was an immigrant herself
coming to the united states in 1996.
Going through the naturalization process
of becoming a u.s. citizen in 2012.
She started here as an instructional
assistant but right away you could tell
with her that it was gonna be much bigger than that.
She's a workhorse. She is a
workhorse. She can outwork me like
nobody's business.
In the english department i think she is our dignity
our class because we're kind of crazy,
loopy department.
Oh yeah, they're a little nutty.
And so, she's a really great balance.
From there, to being a general ed english teacher,
than to a EL teacher and now here
she is, Indiana's Teacher of the Year.
I mean it's like she takes whatever she
does and takes it all the way.
Having kids be successful is all about
relationship building and kids need to
have that connection to someone at
school to help them be successful.
I feel like she's the best thing that has ever
happened to me in this school.
She's like a mother to me, a sister, a best friend.
She's not like a teacher...
she's my friend.
She works very hard to establish and keep those good
relationships.
She's just like a friend...
she makes me feel like...
she's with me always.
I think it's just an environment where
they feel totally at ease
She's like my mother teaching me how to write, read and speak.
So while she does have that
motherly quality and cares for them as a
whole person, she still has the ability
to separate that and say, now it's time to get to work.
When it's time to do what
you're supposed to do, you get down to business with her.
Her background was
very structured growing up in
Czechoslovakia and going to school. The
schools are obviously very structured
about how things worked, and you know what,
so many of our kids strive on structure,
but Jitka knows the right amount of structure to give.
Her lessons are always
precise, purposeful and deliberate.
English was never my favorite subject
but then, ever since I met Ms. Nelson, everything changed.
Ms. Nelson's Teaching is so clear.
She uses great techniques to make it simple for us.
She's very good at looking at data
and then looking at the child and
figuring out what that child needs to be successful.
So this kid needs this,
this kid needs, this kid needs this, and
she can remember it, and then not only
does she remember it but she follows through with it.
She has extremely high
expectations not only for her kids but
for herself. If we're not in school,
she's doing something to get better at
teaching and meeting the needs of her students.
She has a passion for language
and she knows what it takes to learn a language
She knows many languages.
I want to say five or six... and I think maybe its...
at least five...
I think she speaks... I think it might be six different languages or so...
Czech was her first... I think German might have been her second... then english...
but she masters them. I mean
she knows the nuances, she gets the jokes,
she understands the complexities of the
language. So for her to be able to pick
up on that, She truly has a gift.